Learn English with Teacher Joe

I was teaching a pronunciation class in my new job yesterday and some idioms were included in the lesson. Another teacher told me that she accidentally found some sayings on a website with MY PICTURE on it, which reminded me that I made some lessons for students a few years ago. So, after teaching my students the textbook idioms, I went to my old page:  http://www.teacherjoe.us/Wisdom.html  and students could learn a few more expressions. They could also listen to all of my pages on their own time. For me, I was happy that the audio worked! If you’re interested in improving your pronunciation as well as learning some good “conversation starters”, go to that page and try for yourself.

 Hello Everybody,

I just finished the first week at my new job and I’ve been thinking about how important it is to enjoy your work. I can’t say I enjoyed the first week because I spent most of it either in meetings or observing other teachers to learn about the school’s approach to teaching. Next week I will actually start teaching, which will be much more interesting and fun for me.

I found two fascinating, but conflicting, quotes about work on the Internet this evening. First, writer David McCullough wrote, “Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love“.  This seems true, but how possible is it find work that you really love? More than 2000 years ago, Aristotle said “All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind“.   This ALSO seems true to me at times because, even though I love teaching, I don’t love working for someone else who tells me what to do and how to do it.

How do you feel about work? Is it something you love to do or something you just need to do? I’m looking forward to reading your comments!

In previous discussions, we’ve looked at risk-taking and the importance of doubt. In a similar way, today’s quote is about change. We often think of Charles Darwin when we say “only the strong survive” or when we use the expression “survival of the fittest”. We may think it is strength that wins or intelligence. But Darwin himself said:

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.“

Do we rely on our strength to help us survive? Do we think our intelligence is enough? In our changing world, how we respond may be crucial to our success. In our changing world, Darwin’s idea may be more important than ever. How responsive are you to change? What are you doing now to adapt to the change in your life? What could you be doing differently to respond to change in the world?

I think anybody reading this blog is already responding, at least in a small way, to change. Instead of just learning (or teaching) in the classroom, we are here learning (or teaching) English together online. If you travel, if you live or have lived in another country, if you have changed jobs and learned from the experience, then you have responded successfully and grown.

Please write about your successful past changes in the comments section. Let us know what change you faced, how you responded, and how that response helped you. In that way, we can all learn from each other and continue to use this opportunity to change for the better.

Hi Everybody!

I am trying to reorganize my website a bit and have put some of my humor pages together on one page. I call it “Laugh and Learn English“.  Besides my jokes (with audio), you can read some funny stories I wrote a long time ago about my experiences while travelling. I’ve also included a variety of funny things I’ve found in newspapers or magazines. Let me know what you think…

http://www.teacherjoe.us/laughandlearnenglish.htm

A week ago, China suffered a devastating earthquake. The generosity of the Chinese people towards the people in Sichuan Province has been amazing.  In the first week after the quake, more than a billion U.S. dollars were donated to the relief effort. I have been very impressed by the hard work, caring, and concern of everyone from the top leaders to the average person, including my students. Seeing this has made me think of the topic ”giving”, and the role that giving plays in our lives. Here is today’s quote:

“We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.”

~  Winston Churchill ~

[Language Note: “a living” means what we get from a job to help us buy food, clothing, etc. Notice that “living” and “a living” are NOT the same!]

I think that giving, in this quote, does not just mean money or physical gifts. It is referring more to giving time, giving our friendship and love, giving of ourselves in a personal way. I give my time and effort to my students, to help them prepare for their futures. I’m not sure that most of them care about their own futures, but some do, and I think they are grateful for what I give. What are some ways that you give to the people around you? What “gifts” do you receive from others? (Not physical gifts, of course!)

As always, I am looking forward to my students’ comments!

Hi Students!

Here is a difficult topic for students to discuss. Good luck! 

I think human beings always prefer to be right, to be sure that what we are doing is the best way to move forward. But can we ever be 100% sure about everything? Isn’t there always some doubt? The great French writer and philosopher Voltaire said:

“Doubt is not pleasant, but certainty is absurd.”

[Language notes: “doubt” has basically the same meaning as “uncertain”; “absurd” basically means “very strange”.] 

What could Voltaire have meant by this? Is certainty absurd only because it is impossible? Or is there a deeper meaning here? Aren’t there many examples of people being “sure” of something, but later they find out they were not quite right? Has that ever happened to you? Human beings do make mistakes, and we often do misunderstand things.  

What do you think? How do you feel about doubt? Is there any way we can be certain about any topic? (I’m not even sure about what I will eat for lunch today!) If we can’t be more certain of things, how can we live better with doubt? And finally, are there any reasons why this is important? I mean, why did Voltaire feel the need to say this in the first place?

 I’m looking forward to reading your philosophical thoughts!

Herodotus, sometimes called the “Father of History”, wrote the first history book in the West. He observed the following:

“Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.”

Language Notes:  1) “deeds” means “actions”; 2) ”wrought” is old English (we don’t use it in speaking) but we will read it sometimes. It means to make or do something with great effort.

When we look at history, this quote seems obvious. But isn’t it true in our own lives, too? When we are bold, we may fail, but sometimes good things happen too. We may meet someone special by taking a risk. We might improve in a skill, when we try to learn even though we lack confidence. Or we could get a better job just by having the courage to speak out and express a new idea. 

In my life, I think I took a risk to learn languages. Even though I don’t use French much, and I’ve forgotten a lot of what I learned in Spanish and Japanese, all of my effort made me a better teacher. I took a chance with a certain woman, and in that case I failed, but that is life, isn’t it? (We win some and we lose some!) Now I am looking for a new job for the next school year in September - should I try to stay in China or go back to the U.S. to teach? Or I could go to another country where I could learn a new language! I might not make much money, but it would be interesting. Am I ready to take that risk?

And what about you? Are you naturally a risk-taker? Or do you hesitate to try new things? What risks have you taken in your life? What were the results? Are there any risks you would like to take right now? Do you think, in the end, that risks are worth it? Maybe we should just be careful all of the time.

That reminds me of another great quote (I do not know who said it):

“Ships in harbor are safe, but that is not what ships are for.”

So now the question is, are you a ship?

We have a challenging topic for you today! The Greek dramatist Sophocles, famous for plays like Oedipus the King, once wrote this:

“The end excuses any evil. “

Today, we sometimes say “the end justifies the mean”, which means the same thing.

This is a difficult quote to agree with, but for some practical-minded people, maybe it makes sense. If we can do something good, if we can help people or make the world a better place to live, then maybe it IS good if we do some evil things along the way. Well, I’m not sure I agree with that. Do you?

I often hear people speak of the importance of passion, both in our personal lives and in our work. I found this quote by the French writer and philosopher Denis Diderot:

“Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.” 

(Language notes: “elevate” means “to lift up”; “the soul” means “your spirit”)

When I teach, I try to bring great passion to the classroom. I deeply care about my students’ success, though sometimes they don’t know it. I am fascinated by how people learn and grow. I love it when students can easily do things that they could not do before. It’s a lot of fun to watch students improve!

I used to have great passion for a certain woman, someone I cared about very deeply. Unfortunately, she did not have the same passion for me.  It was a sad, though common, situation, but I guess I learned something from it. It was worth all of the pain if I am a better person now.

What do you have passion for? Do you have passion for a special person in your life? Do you have passion for your work. Or maybe passion for your FUTURE work? What kind of great things could you do in the future?

 Today’s quote is below. It comes from The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce. 

“Brain: an apparatus with which we think we think. “

(Language Note:  An apparatus is any machine or piece of equipment. )

So, do you think we really think? Or do we only think that we think? Or is Bierce wrong to think that we only think that we think? Maybe when we think that we think we think more than when we don’t think that we think! What do you think???